William and Kate riding above the Jamaican defence force feels tone deaf. Photo / Getty Images
William and Kate riding above the Jamaican defence force feels tone deaf. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
In another world, another parallel universe somewhere out there the big royal story today would be all about Kate, Duchess of Cambridge's jewellery.
William and Kate riding above the Jamaican defence force feels tone deaf. Photo / Getty Images
On tour in the Caribbean, the future queen has been wheeling out a series of rarely seen and important pieces borrowed from her grandmother-in-law and boss, aka the 'Top lady' (as Diana, Princess of Wales called her) aka The Queen, in what is a significant show of confidence by Her Majesty.
For a state dinner in Jamaica, Kate donned the bracelet and earrings from Her Majesty's Emerald Tassel Parure, the first HRH besides the sovereign to wear the pieces.
Later she wore a pair of diamond and pearl earrings that were suitably enormous and then later chose the Queen's hummingbird brooch, given to her when she visited Jamaica in 2002.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge at a dinner hosted by Patrick Allen, Governor General of Jamaica. Photo / Getty Images
Instead, this week, any jewellery talk has been pushed off the front pages and Kate and her husband Prince William's first overseas tour in two years has been dramatically overshadowed by the grim spectre of British colonialism.
Going into this eight-day trip to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, the line that Kensington Palace was trying to peddle was that this jaunt was all about saying thank you, on behalf of the Queen, for the nations' continued support in her Platinum Jubilee year.
On the agenda, the entirely predictable roster of cheering crowds, pretty dresses and dignitaries being forced to wait on hot tarmacs to greet the couple.
But the crucial thing to keep in mind here is that this is the first overseas tour since Black Lives Matter protests swept the US and the UK and the subsequent global groundswell of conversations about race and power. (In January, four people in the UK who had been charged with criminal damage after tearing down a statue of 17th-century slave traded Edward Colston, were acquitted after the judge urged jurors to "be on the right side of history".)
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, shake hands with children during a visit to Trench Town. Photo / Getty Images
And yet William and Kate seem to have plunged into this tour either blinkered to all of this or having failed to appreciate the shifting political climate beyond the rarefied air of Kensington Palace and the Hurlingham Club.
This tour could have represented a reset for the monarchy in the wake of not only the pandemic but the ructions of Megxit and the Prince Andrew debacle.
In 1970, the Queen undertook her first walkabout, a novel and electrifying idea at the time. (Interestingly, said debut walkabout happened in Sydney and Princess Anne, who was travelling with her parents, shocked some of the crowd by using fabulously unladylike language and complaining about the "bloody wind" to the crowd.)
Which is to say, ways of doing things can and should change to meet the times.
But, rather than revamping or offering any real innovation in the way that working HRHs go about connecting with the people of the Commonwealth, this week we saw William and Kate being driven around an official event at a Jamaican defence force training ground in the same ceremonial Land Rover as the Queen and Prince Philip first used in 1962.
William and Kate riding above the Jamaican defence force feels tone deaf. Photo / Getty Images
What was meant to be a touching gesture instead symbolises everything that was wrong with this tour. The sight of a white royal couple being driven around like something out of an Evelyn Waugh novel while military personnel of colour stand to attention strikes a deeply uncomfortable note.
The Queen and Philip inspecting members of the Second Battalion of the Jamaica Regiment in 1962. Photo / Getty Images
(For god's sake: Kate had on a white lace get-up like she was auditioning for an amateur production of Heat and Dust.)
All Kensington Palace's aides seem to have done when it came to planning this week's itinerary was to haul down the leatherbound 'Royal tour 101' volumes off the shelves, blow off the dust and spice things up with a zippier social media strategy. Bish bash bosh! You've got a 2022 royal tour! Now, who knows where Kate keeps her SPF50?
As much as I would love to give the duo a sterling report card for this tour, though pip pip for the fun Instagram videos and Kate's much more glam and much more sophisticated style, the truth is, this tour was a huge bloody disappointment.
The was really crystallised on Wednesday night when William gave a speech at a state dinner in the Jamaican capital of Kingston and spoke about the "appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history".
"I want to express my profound sorrow," he told the dignitaries at the black-tie event. "Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened."
While it was powerful stuff, he failed to say the one word that really mattered and the single, solitary word that people hoped he would have the backbone and moral gumption to utter – sorry.
Prince William delivers a speech, flanked by Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness. Photo / Getty Images
As he stood at that lectern he was presented with an opportunity to show true moral leadership on this sensitive issue. No matter that slavery might have been abolished once and for all by his forebear King William IV in 1833, the 39-year-old royal represents the institution that very clearly profited from this abhorrent practice.
Instead of standing up, acknowledging this fact and apologising for it, he opted for what has become the Windsor Two-Step – dance close to a thorny issue, tentatively concede to it and then hastily back away without actually really confronting and dealing with it. (Prince Andrew, looking at you buddy.)
Nothing can change the fact that between 1662 and 1807, 3.1 million men, women and children were shipped from Africa to the Caribbean and sold as slaves to work on plantations. But what William can do is acknowledge his distant relatives' part in this heinous practice and the untold suffering they played a part in.
Kate and William as they depart on their RAF Voyager plane from Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica. Photo / Getty Images
While apologising for the British Empire's history of enslaving and shipping human beings would have strayed controversially towards the political (and would have played appallingly with the crusty Major types back home) it would have been an incredibly powerful moment that staked the future King William V's reign as being one altogether more substantial and meaningful.
This was William's chance to set himself up as a genuinely inspiring and interesting leader and public figure, one tapped into the evolving currents of public feeling and one willing to do what was right rather than what was expected.
The Duke of Cambridge could have just made history. What he made was a critical mistake.
Prince William's speech didn't quite cut the mustard. Photo / Getty Images
What this trip should have been was a reboot, a binning of that tried-and-true (and very, very tired) formula and a prime occasion for William and Kate to show the world how they were going to do things differently. Really, this was their first big moment to set out how they are going to rule and what sort of leaders they are going to be.
All we got instead was a recycled, blandly conventional playlist of the royal tour's greatest hits.
Right now, we are at one of the most critical junctures for the Crown in a century and what we have seen this week should have every diehard monarchist lighting their Princess Margaret candles and praying the situation improves, and fast.
After the last few years of the royal family being buffeted by one crisis after another, after an exhausting, non-stop torrent of allegations about sexual assault, institutional racism, and cruelty, this was a chance for William and Kate to redefine what a monarchy stands for and what it can actually do.
They blew it.
Relying on what worked in the past and not being attuned to how far and fast public feelings and attitudes are moving is the fastest way the Cambridges could dash the future viability of the monarchy short of getting Andrew out of mothballs and putting him in charge of youth outreach.
Yes, Kate looked wonderful this week, rolling out a series of much more glamorous and sleek looks. Yes, the jewels were spectacular. But the monarchy cannot expect to get by on pretty pictures alone.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will only be afforded so many moments to make their case to the much more sceptical younger generations about the value and meaning of a monarchy in modern society. One down and who knows how many more they will have to go?
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years' experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.
